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Fallen deputy mourned by Forsyth County enforcement community

On Friday, law enforcement vehicles escorted a McDonald and Sons Funeral Home herse carrying the body of fallen Forsyth County Sheriff's Office Deputy Spencer Englett through Forsyth County on its way to the Funeral home.
- photo by Jim Dean

The Forsyth County law enforcement community was in mourning
Friday after news broke that a young deputy died suddenly and unexpectedly Thursday
while attending a training academy in north Georgia.
Deputy Spencer Englett

In an emotional press conference held Friday, Forsyth County
Sheriff Ron Freeman announced that 29-year-old Forsyth County Sheriff's Office
Deputy Spencer Englett suffered a traumatic medical event and collapsed during
the first day of training at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in
Pickens County.

After Englett collapsed at the training facility, Freeman
said the deputy was rushed to Piedmont Mountainside Medical Center in Jasper
but was unable to be revived by medical staff and first responders.

"They were doing a physical training scenario when he
fell ill,” Freeman said. “He collapsed. There were EMTs and a fire chief there
immediately ... They rushed him to the hospital, and they unfortunately,
tragically, could not revive him.”

Freeman said that from all accounts Englett was in perfect
health prior to his collapse and had been excited in the weeks leading up to
the training, working out hard to be ready for it.

"Deputy Englett had been working out, had been
preparing for the academy,” Freeman said. “This was not his first physical
exertion, so we don't know what happened. Sometimes there’s underlying factors
that just go unknown.”

No definite cause of death has been determined, Freeman said.
Officials are awaiting a report from the Georgia Medical Examiner’s Office. Freeman
indicated that Englett’s collapse was induced by the physical exercise during
the training.

Freeman called Englett, a south Georgia-native, one of the
“biggest-hearted” young men he had ever hired who epitomized honor looked for
in law enforcement officers and excelled as an “amateur/professional wrestler”
prior to becoming a deputy.

“He was a stellar deputy who had done tremendous work
here,” Freeman said. “He had been selected over many of his peers to attend the
law enforcement academy, and that's a testament to his work and his work ethic
and his work ability.”

Englett was hired by the sheriff’s office May 1, 2017, and
had previously worked for the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office and had recently
married, Freeman said.

He said that Englett will be posthumously awarded the rank
of Deputy First Class, the rank he was working towards prior to his death.

"For a young man, early in his law enforcement career,
he got it," Freeman said.

A law enforcement funeral will be held for Englett at Winds
of Peace Fellowship Church in Dawson County at 10 a.m. on Tuesday morning, with
a burial to occur later in Baldwin County.

Englett is survived by his wife Ashley Englett, his mother
Robin Sibley, and many other relatives and friends, according to an obituary
from McDonald and Sons Funeral Home.

The family has asked for donations to be made to the Forsyth
County Sheriff’s Office’s B.A.D.G.E. program in Englett’s name in lieu of
flowers.

This is the sheriff’s office’s first line of duty death
since the death of Deputy Mike Lord in January 2010.